GGV closes $620m fund

GGV Capital, a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley and Shanghai and backed by the University of California system, has closed its fifth fund. GGV Capital V is continuing the firm’s strategy of investing in internet and digital, cloud and software-as-a-service, and mobile sectors.

The new fund is consistent in size with the firm’s previous funds, having raised slightly less than the 2012 GGV Capital IV of $625m. The firm has a portfolio of successful companies, such as Alibaba Group which filed registration papers in the US on May 6, 2014, to go public in what is expected to be one of the largest initial public offerings the US market has seen so far. Other successful businesses GGV has backed include Soundcloud, Flipboard and Zendesk.

Founded in 2000, GGV Capital’s investments have provided a particularly good return since 2010, as a total of sixteen companies have completed their initial public offerings across six different exchanges (Nyse, Nasdaq, EuroNext Paris, Hong Kong, ChiNext and Shanghai).

GGV Capital V has been backed by both existing investors such as the California University’s board of regents, the institution’s governing body, and new investors such as the University of Texas Investment Management Company (Utimco), the university system’s investment company. The respective sizes of their investments is undisclosed.

Lindel Eakman, managing director of Utimco, said: “We are thrilled to be investing with one of the top performing global VC firms. For more than a decade, GGV has consistently built relationships with the top entrepreneurs in the US and China.”